The Hyland Ski Hill (Morty’s) (Again) – Bloomington, MN

I try not to review the same place more than once in the same year, so I had to wait an entire season to review Morty’s again. This isn’t to say that I haven’t been back here like 10 times in the interim, I just haven’t reviewed it for you. DawgMan was the one who turned me on to this place back in 2009, and oddly enough, it was his birthday and we needed to celebrate. A large group of my former coworkers planned the outing and picked an amazing day of sunshine – this means we eat out on the deck behind the restaurant in the sun and watch people at the driving range and disc golf course.

As usual, you go to the snack bar in the ski lodge and walk into the center of what looks like the food area – this is still a weird layout in my book, but I’m used to it by now. You look at the menu board for the specials, and then they have the regularly occurring menu on a sheet of paper near the entrance to the inner circle. Today, there were some fantastic items on the special menu. The chef here is twisted and I love it.

I was glad to see the Thai sandwich on the board again and I almost got it. The only difference was it was a chicken sandwich instead of a burger. I’m guessing you could have asked for a burger in stead of chicken and they would have done it. They’re really versatile here. The sandwich that won me over, however, was call the “It’s A Party In Your Mouth Burger” – yes, really. That’s the name. It is a burger with lettuce, tomato, cheese whiz, American cheese, deep fried cheese curds, and chicken fried bacon. Yeah, that’s pretty much what I dream about regularly. How could this sandwich be anything but brilliant? In short, it CAN’T!

This sandwich was awesome. It sounds like a lot of cheese, but honestly, none of the cheeses overpowered the burger – and that would be EASY with these three kinds of cheese. It was the perfect ratio. The cheese curds were crispy yet soft and there was just a smear of cheese whiz on it. The bacon was the best part (like it usually is) – deep fried and chicken-ed or whatever they do to it. It was fantastic. My friends and former coworkers mocked at first, but then all commented on how good it looked. That’s because it WAS good. The fries top off the meal, but being as I’m not a fry guy, they were just filler so I didn’t have to go back and order the Thai Burger (which crossed my mind, believe it or not).

This place is a hidden gem in the Twin Cities and I think people are finding out about it. This was the most packed I’ve ever seen the place, so Morty must be doing good business. I’m glad to see it. It’s easy to find – just south of I-494 on Bush Lake Road. I’m getting a whole lot of people hooked on this place.

I won’t give it a top 5 since the It’s A Party In Your Mouth Burger would be all 5 of them!